Mutual Understanding
by oshagirl
Summary: After the events during the festival Yang gets a special visitor, with an unexpected story. [AU]


**AN: So, I wrote a one-shot thing while it's still relevant. It's an AU so things won't happen in the show, nor will this ever happen in the show, even though I like to think it did. Enjoy!**

If anything, the brunette would describe the place as dull. The lights on the ceiling were of the white kind, eliminating any sort of coziness and instead filling the atmosphere with a fake brightness. The overcast weather outside didn't help the case, nor did the grey tiles on both the floor and walls. The overall smell of the building wasn't all that pleasant either. It didn't look like they never cleaned the place. Quite opposite in fact, dominating was the smell of pine, the one originating from the cheapest of cleaning products. If the odor was any stronger she was certain it would've made her sick.

Getting into the place hadn't proven to be that difficult. She only had to give them her name and explain she wanted to visit her cousin, the latter being a lie they swallowed without noticing. The fact that they didn't bother to check this sort of information surprised her, though naturally she wasn't complaining. A lot of people must've wished to visit the girl the last couple of days, so they probably stopped bothering to check.

Now she was following two guards through a hallway, one then taking the corridor to the right. She however kept following the other one. She was let to a room split into by glass, small booths against it on both sides. The brunette took seat in the corner in the far end, legs crossed, the guard she'd followed leaning against the wall next to the door.

It only took a few minutes before a blonde, accompanied by the guard that had left earlier, arrived in the other side of the room. She was left in a yellow tank top and some beige trousers, not too indignifying but not too fancy either, handcuffs were a given. The blonde was looking at the group, not even interested in who her visitor was this time. She dropped herself on the chair, and her guard copied the moves of the other one.

"Listen-" the brunette was cut off.

"I swear that's not what happened!" the blonde exclaimed, slamming her fists on the table of the booth, her eyes going from violet to red.

The brunette was a bit surprised at the outburst, but waved off the guard that re-approached the blonde.

It had been a couple of days since the event at the arena. Yang'd been taken away almost instantly, showing no resistance, only shock and confusion. Team RWBY of course had to withdraw from the tournament, and Yang had been in the police' custody ever since, waiting until the end of the tournament so her case could be dealt with properly.

Then the blonde looked at her visitor. Her eyes widened in surprise, her anger vanishing instantly.  
"You're ... The leader of team CFVY, Coco Adel."

Coco nodded, a small smile making its way onto her face. It was soon replaced with replaced with a serious expression, however.

Yang's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Because..." Coco took off the sunglasses she was wearing, the only decent protection against the unnatural light, and placed them on the table, after which she looked straight at Yang, "I believe you."

"... What?" needless to say Yang downright stared back, disbelief written on her face, audible in her voice.

"Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai. Something is not... right about those two." the brunette started to explain, thinking about her own match against the pair. She grit her teeth in frustration. She hated how she allowed herself to become vulnerable like that.

"What ha-" she let a small pause to rephrase her sentence. Yang simply waited. "What did you see?"

If Yang was completely honest, out of all the people that had come to visit her so far, Coco had to be the second to ask her that question, the first being her team. Shows how much the officials care. She repressed a scoff at that thought.

"After I defeated Mercury, he stood back up. He..." Yang narrowed her eyes, as if to stimulate her memory, "He threatened me. Then he swung another kick at me, when I'd already turned around. His thread made me realize what he was doing, giving me the chance to counter it. I only acted in self defense."

"I figured it must've been something like that", Coco replied.

"How so? Did you see it too?" Yang suddenly asked, volume rising.

The older of the two shook her head. "I did not, however I've gone through a similar experience. Not as drastic as what happened to you, though."

When Yang gave her a questioning look, Coco started explaining further.

"I'm not sure if you watched my fight in the doubles round", Yang nodded, "Anyhow, I was separated from Yatsu early in the match." Coco looked down at her sunglasses.

When Yang gave her a questioning look, Coco started explaining further.

"I'm not sure if you watched my fight in the doubles round", Yang nodded, "Anyhow, I was separated from Yatsu early in the match." Coco looked down at her sunglasses. "And, in the forest, I saw him. I saw Yatsu. He _talked_ to me."

"Wait, I never saw him enter the forest section of the field. He was fighting Mercury the whole time", Yang interrupted.

"I know", Coco replied in a slightly higher volume, her expression clearly showing frustration.

"Yet I also know I saw him. He was there one moment, then the teachers announced he was defeated somehow, and the next moment he was gone. It was as if he was never there... I asked him if he was there. I looked at the footage of the fight. He never entered the it."

Yang could see CFVY's leader was struggling to stay calm. Coco shook her head, trying to regain the composure she almost lost, and the blonde couldn't help but envy that fact a little. After all, she'd immediately lashed out, before even checking who her visitor was.

"That's why I'm here. That's why I believe you." She lifted her head for her eyes to meet Yang's. "I don't believe this is just a coincidence."

"And that Emerald and Mercury are behind this all." the blonde added.

Again, Coco nodded.

Yang frowned. Before this all, she had considered them to be her friends. Of course, that thought had faded the moment the dust had settled. "The question is how. How did they pull this off?"

"A semblance. It must've been the semblance of one of those two."

"Aren't mental manipulation semblances forbidden, though?" Yang interrupted, narrowing her eyes.

"Indeed they are, however both of their profiles state their semblances are unknown. They could easily get away with it like that," Coco explained with an angry undertone.

"What about the authorities? Why didn't you go to the teachers? Someone should be able to do something about this…"

Coco sighed in response. "My own team won't even believe me. They keep saying I fell on my head or something." She clenched her fist, suppressing negative thoughts that tried to sneak into her mind by reaching for her sunglasses and putting them on again.

"With you though, there's new evidence. If I can tie this all together, we _could_ be able to catch them."

For the first time since the event Yang felt hope rising. When Ruby and Qrow came to visit her, they'd promised her they'd do everything within their power to do something about the situation, however given that they had no proof of what happened, they couldn't fight the case.

Yang looked at Coco, trying to see if what the brunette was saying held any truth. She didn't show any signs of lying. Then again, the blonde didn't know Coco personally. Pretty much all she knew about the second year was that she shared certain classes with one of Coco's teammates and some basic combat information she'd gathered during the breach and the other girl's battles in the tournament. All in all, she actually knew very little about CFVY's leader and she assumed the same applied the other way around.

Yet, Coco was willing to help her.

"But what if you get in trouble?" Yang asked.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take. Those two need to be stopped. I mean, if they're capable of doing something like this, what else could they already have done without atoning to them?" Coco answered, determination in her voice.

Coco saw a small glimmer appearing in the blonde's eyes, serving as a sign to Coco to say that Yang did believe her. It came as a relief to her that the effort she'd taken to come over here was not in vain. She looked at Yang, meeting her with a small smile. Because of the sunglasses she was wearing again people could think it was more a grin than anything, but Yang knew it was a smile of sympathy. And for once since the event, she returned that smile by a truly grateful one.

Maybe things weren't hopeless after all.


End file.
